Film series on artists like 'backstage tour of museum exhibit'

The McConnell Arts Center will kick off the 2018 edition of its Art Film Series with “Canaletto and the Art of Venice,” screening Friday in the center’s 213-seat Bronwynn Theater.

Five years ago, after showing second-run movies that failed to attract crowds, officials at the Worthington venue introduced the Art Film Series. Art lovers responded.

“It’s been a pretty popular series,” said Jon Cook, the center executive director. “The idea that people can see an exhibition in our theater that they typically could see in France or Italy is a really great opportunity.”

The Friday screening focuses on the works of Giovanni Antonio Canal, known for his landscapes of Venice. According to his biography on the National Gallery of Art website, Canal was born in Venice in 1697. His father was theatrical scene painter Bernardo Canal, the reason he took the name Canaletto (“little Canal”).

Canaletto created large-scale works of the city’s canals and architecture that caught the attention of English merchant Joseph Smith, who helped the artist sell his works in England.

In 1746, as the War of Austrian Succession disrupted Europe, Canaletto moved to London to be closer to his buyers. He stayed in London, painting images of that city, until he returned to Venice in 1755. There, he continued to work until his death in 1768.

The British company Exhibitions on Screen based “Canaletto and the Art of Venice” on an exhibition of 200 Canaletto paintings, drawings and prints at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace in London. The film examines the paintings on display but also visits the actual landscapes used as models by Canaletto.

Exhibitions on Screen has created a series of 16 movies that profile the works of 16 artists. Although the paintings are the stars, Cook said that the series also provides perspective by interviewing art curators and examining the artist’s life, such as connections with royal courts or patrons.

The films also consider the historical era in which the artist lived.

“If there was, say, a plague in whatever time period that was,” Cook said, “they would talk about what that meant to the artist.

“It comes full circle. I call it a backstage tour of a museum exhibit.”

The McConnell Arts Center aims to showcase the works of current central Ohio artists, Cook said, but the Arts Film Series is meant to provide artists with inspiration and historical perspective.

And the films can be enjoyed by people who simply have an eye for art.

“We have people who are appreciators of art,” he said. “It gives them a broader perspective of what we’re doing at the MAC.”

Future films in the series will include a March 16 screening of “David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts" and an April 27 showing of “Cezanne: Portraits of a Life.”

The series will then resume in the fall, Cook said.

"The films are really well-done and well-executed," he said. "They’re really good."

tmikesel@dispatch.com

@terrymikesell

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